Saint Augustine: mystic or a Platonic-Christian intellectual?

Abstract

Mystique is a phenomenon present in almost all the great religions of the
world. In Christianity, this manifestation can be seen already in the New Testament:
from the accounts that involved the events of Jesus' life to the eschatological visions
of John in the book of Revelation. Later, we can find records of mysticism in the great
movement of the Fathers of the Church known as Patristic, extending throughout the
Middle Ages, until reaching the present day. However, some researchers of late antiquity, tri
ed to frame the great name of Patristic, Saint Augustine, as the father of
the Catholic mystic. Furthermore, Augustine is widely known as a great theologian,
philosopher or even as an intellectual Platonic Christian genius investigating the
Truth; neverthe less being quite small the number of researchers proposing to verify
whether, in fact, there are reasons or not for Him to be considered among the great
mystics of the Church. The present essay brings up this controversial discussion, in
order to elucidate the problem that now arises: can we consider Saint Augustine a
mystic or just a great name in Christian philosophy / theology? That said, to answer
that question problem we propose to investigate the main events of Augustine's life,
as well as the main te xts of his work, in order to prove some trace of mysticism,
either in his life or in his investigations about the Truth.